


Cherry Bomb

by gayrell



Category: Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: Blackmail, Crossdressing, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-25
Updated: 2018-03-22
Packaged: 2019-03-23 16:05:31
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,656
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13791231
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gayrell/pseuds/gayrell
Summary: Takumi doesn’t register what he’s seeing until he gets to the frilly lilac stockings, and then he chokes.Or: The Maid-Sama AU no one asked for





	1. In Which Hinata Persuades Takumi to Visit a Maid Café

Takumi doesn’t register what he’s seeing until he gets to the frilly lilac stockings, and then he chokes. 

“Takumi? Are you okay?” asks Oboro, smacking his back. Takumi feels himself nod, feels Hinata nudge his arm with his elbow, feels the eyes of the last person he’d ever expected to find here boring into his face.

“Welcome to Café Kanamour,” says Leo, “My name is Maximilian. How may I serve you today, Masters?” He’s dressed in the café uniform, a black dress with white cuffs and a ruffled collar that dips to reveal a heart-shaped cutout in the fabric, and a feathery skirt that flares out mid-thigh. The lacy apron around his waist is tied with a perfect, exaggerated bow, as if kept in place by magic, or, more likely, a good sewing job. Then, of course, there are the lilac stockings, which stop at the thighs and leave the slightest, barest bit of pale skin exposed above the frills. Takumi can’t take his eyes off them.

“Can we have a glass of water for our friend?” asks Oboro. She smirks. “Sorry, he gets nervous around cute--”

“Yes. Water,” Takumi interrupts, tearing his eyes away from the cursed stockings at last, his voice coming out stronger than he expects. Leo’s face remains a smiling mask, and perhaps Takumi prefers it that way. Anonymous. No acknowledgement. Yes. This is fine.

Leo curtsies. “As you wish, master.” 

Once he’s gone, Hinata elbows Takumi’s arm. “What was that?” he asks, a grin plastered on his face. 

“Someone got a crush?” croons Oboro. 

Takumi scowls, eyes darting in the direction Leo vanished. “Shut up,” he hisses, “I fucking hate that guy.”

Hinata gasps. “Who, Maxillian?”

It would be an understatement to say that Takumi regrets letting Hinata talk him into coming with him to a maid café, and even more of an understatement to suggest that he’s enjoying his first-- and now, he thinks, only-- experience with one. No, he thinks, actually, he’s never going to leave the house again. It’ll worry Sakura sick, sure, but better to be safe than sorry in the long run. 

Oboro picks up her napkin-wrapped silverware and begins peeling off the paper wrapper. “Do we need to kill someone?”

“No!” snaps Takumi, a little too loudly, just as a glass of water thunks onto the table in front of him. He jumps.

Leo smiles at them, though to Takumi it feels more like a grimace. “My apologies for the wait. Is everything all right over here?” 

Both Oboro and Hinata turn to Takumi.

“Never better,” he says; it feels almost like a challenge. 

Leo raises an eyebrow. “Then may I take your orders, Masters?” he says through a smirk. 

“Yes, you can,” says Takumi, “I’ll take the…” Takumi grimaces as he reads the words off the menu. He never should have let Hinata convince him to come here. “...Dragon Kiss Explosion Parfait?” Out of the corner of his eye, he thinks he sees a smirk. Takumi swallows. “And,” he adds, with forced bravado, still avoiding eye contact with Leo, “The Smoochy Bear Smoothie.” He sets down the menu with a decisive  _ thunk _ . 

Leo nods. “As you wish,  _ Master _ .” After the others have placed their orders, he sashays away, menus in hand, the steady  _ click, click, click  _ of his heels marking his departure.

\---

The parfait is, Takumi hates to admit it, delicious. Everything is. Takumi hates Hinata for taking him here, because now he’s tasted heaven and can never come back.

Hinata, for his part, stuffs his face with the Doki Doki Cinnamon Bun, mouth open, crumbs and spittle flying with every smack of his lips. Oboro watches, her own parfait abandoned in favor of a disgusted silence. Takumi silently thanks the gods that Leo is occupied with another table.

His eyes catch the slivers of thigh peeking out from under Leo’s skirt again, through the lace of his lilac stockings. As if he can feel Takumi’s eyes on, well, a part of him, Leo glances over his shoulder. Takumi flicks his eyes back to the parfait glass in front of him, heart pounding more than it has any right to. He coughs.

“Well, uh, should we go?” he asks, then freezes. Hinata sits poised with a spoonful of dessert halfway to his open mouth, whipped cream dribbling onto his plate. Oboro has resumed progress on her parfait, but she watches Takumi with a brow raised.

“Doing a lot of starin’ there, huh, bud?” she says, voice giving nothing away.

Takumi feels fire rise to his ears. “Shut up!” he hisses.

Oboro shrugs. “Just sayin’.” She waves at someone behind him. “Hey, Maxi!” she grins. 

Takumi’s horror must be evident on his face, because Hinata laughs. 

“It’s Maximilian,” says a voice behind him, with clipped words, “ _ Master _ .”

Oboro nods patiently. “Our friend Takumi here has something he wants to ask you,” she says, patting Takumi on the arm. Takumi shoots her a look that he hopes conveys murderous intent.

Hinata laughs again, smacking Takumi on the back. Takumi splutters. “Yeah, he wants to know if you would give him--”

“The check,” interjects Takumi, eyes flicking between the two people formerly known as his best friends. Oboro gives him a warm smile, her eyes hidden underneath her blue-streaked bangs. Takumi scowls at her. “Just one, please.”

“As you wish,” says Leo, bowing. 

As soon as he’s out of earshot, Takumi bangs his elbows on the table. “What the hell, guys?” he hisses. 

Oboro shrugs. “You seemed interested, so we were only trying to help you out.”

Takumi groans. “I cannot believe you two.”

Hinata and Oboro exchange a look.

“Takumi,” says Hinata, like a villain trying to negotiate with a superhero at the climax of a film, “The last time you said you hated someone, it was Corrin.”

“I still hate Corrin,” Takumi reminds them. 

Hinata mumbles an, “Oh, yeah.”

Oboro pounces. “Azura,” she suggests.

“I barely talk to Azura!”

“But do you hate her?” asks Hinata, his elbows splayed on the table, chin in his hands.

Takumi rolls his eyes. “I never said I--”

“Your check, Master.” Takumi shivers at the soft voice in his ear, a manicured hand setting the bill gently on the table next to him.

“Th-thank you,” he mutters, but Leo has already vanished.

“Seriously, what is your  _ deal _ ?” asks Oboro.

Takumi only pulls a wad of bills out of his wallet, smacks it on the table, and stalks for the exit.

“You guys can cover tip,” he calls over his shoulder, as the door slams shut behind him. 


	2. In Which Takumi Finds Himself Blackmailed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Takumi runs into a handsome stranger, Azura likes vaporwave, and Takumi makes a fool of himself in front of a handsome maid.

“Visiting an old friend?” asks the man, as Takumi dives face-first into his cleavage the moment he steps outside. 

Takumi recoils, back pressing against the door. “Excuse me,” he mutters, eyes seeking a way around the man without going back into the café. The man creeps closer. Takumi scrabbles for the doorknob, his eyes not leaving the stranger’s face. At last, he grasps the handle just as the man’s palm slams into the wall next to his head. Takumi freezes.

The stranger, on the other hand, appears the pinnacle of relaxed, his shaggy white hair dancing in the breeze, a dusky hand on his hip. His right eye is covered in a black eyepatch, because he was already subtle enough with the shirt open down to his belly button. If his aura wasn’t so threatening, Takumi might think he was simply relaxing against the wall.

The stranger watches Takumi closely with an eye the color of storm clouds, then smirks. “Relax,” he says, minty breath wafting over Takumi’s face. Takumi curls his lip. “I just wanna talk.”

Takumi glances around again, praying someone nearby can come to his aid, then chides himself for taking the exit that leads to the alley. If he hadn’t been so worried about being spotted--

“My friends are in there,” Takumi spits. He’ll fight the taller man if it gets down to it (he really hopes it doesn’t), but he can sense something dangerous in his aura. With his luck, he’ll wind up in a ditch outside of town, and no one will find him for months. He almost wishes he hadn’t been so harsh on Hinata and Oboro before he left. Almost. “They’ll wonder where I am.”

The man lets out a raspy chuckle, his good eye closing in amusement. 

Takumi clenches his fists. “I’m serious! Let me go.”

The man opens his eye, the smirk not leaving his face. “Let you go, hm? I  _ suppose  _ I could--” He trails off, his smirk morphing into a frown. “Actually, no, you’re not old enough,” he mutters to himself, “You’re Takumi, if I’m not mistaken?” Before Takumi can answer, he pulls out a phone, and snaps a picture.

Takumi blinks in the aftermath of the flash. “Hey!” he shouts, but the man has already returned the phone to his pocket.

“So here’s the deal,” says the stranger, “You tell anyone you saw darling Leo here today, I make sure everyone finds out you like maid cafés. Deal?”

“I don’t even like maid cafés!” Takumi says on reflex, then wrinkles his brow.  _ Darling Leo _ ? He looks the stranger up and down again, his desire to call the authorities only growing. Sure, he’d found his male classmate working as a… waiter? waitress? at a maid café a little weird, but now the situation is getting downright suspicious. 

“Ah, I know what you’re thinking. I’m a sex trafficker, perhaps? Our darling Leo has entered into a relationship with an unseemly older man?” The man shakes his head, then, his breath hot against Takumi’s ear, whispers, “I seek only my dear master’s best interests.” 

Before Takumi can say anything more, the man pulls away, expression vague. Takumi shivers under the cool breeze left in his wake.

The man’s smirk returns to his scar-riddled face. “It’s been... a pleasure.” He wiggles the phone in his hand. “I hope we won’t be meeting again.” Then, with what Takumi  _ assumes _ is meant to be a wink, (which is ridiculous, because  _ obviously  _ you can’t wink with one eye-- Takumi shakes his head), the man is gone.

Takumi doesn’t realize how tense he is until the door slams open behind him and he lets out a yelp, twirling to find himself face-to-face with Leo, still in uniform. The other’s expression flicks from one of tired apathy, to open-mouthed embarrassment, to anger before Takumi can register what he’s seeing.

“What are you  _ doing _ out here?” growls Leo, voice betrayed by his red cheeks and shifty eyes. 

“W-what are  _ you  _ doing out here?” Takumi retorts, hoping Leo can’t hear the thudding in his chest.

Leo rolls his eyes. “Taking my break. Because I work here,” he says, then tacks on an, “Idiot.”

“Oh,” says Takumi. He can’t decide on one of the hundreds of questions and retorts running through his head. Leo obviously wants him to leave, but Takumi can’t bring himself to. 

“Okay,” says Leo, finally, breaking the increasingly distressing silence, “I guess I’ll go back inside, then.” 

He moves for the door. “Wait,” says Takumi. He doesn’t realize he’s said it until Leo raises an expectant eyebrow.

“What?”

Takumi suddenly understands the merits of winding up in a ditch outside of town, rather than being here, doing… whatever this is. Hinata is better at this than he is, and Oboro would at least be able to find him a means of escape. He kicks himself again for leaving them behind.

“Are you--” Takumi looks Leo up and down. Perhaps it’s the angle, or maybe just the situation, but this time, the lilac stockings have no effect on him.

“You’re disgusting,” says Leo, at the same time as Takumi finishes his question.

“--okay?” They look each other over. Leo appears taken aback, and Takumi rubs his hands on his jeans. The thudding in his chest has migrated to his throat.

“Huh?” says Leo, eyes glazing over like he’s solving a complex equation in his head.

“I gotta go,” says Takumi, but doesn’t move. 

“Wait,” says Leo, whose expression hasn’t changed.

“I gotta go,” Takumi says again.

\---

“And then you… stood there.” Azura looks up from the latest vaporwave playlist she’s been working on. 

Takumi plops his head into his hands. “I didn’t know what else to do.”

“So you did nothing,” she says, matter-of-factly. From anyone else, the sentiment would sound mocking, but with her soft, melodic voice, Azura has a way of making anything sound nice.

“I didn’t mean to!” groans Takumi. 

Azura nods. “I understand.” She closes her laptop, cutting off the ethereal tones of a synthesizer remix of “Africa” by Toto, and moves to the other side of the table next to Takumi. “I know what it’s like to care too much about someone.”

Takumi shakes her hand off his shoulder. “I don’t care about him!” He practically shouts it, but the message rings somehow false.

Azura nods understandingly. “Of course not, but it can be hard to see someone you know in trouble, even if the two of you aren’t close.” Takumi groans; Azura places her hand back on his shoulder and rubs it reassuringly. 

“What if he really is in trouble? I can’t just-- Ugh.” He splays his upper body out on the table.

“I’ll go make us some tea,” says Azura; she gives his shoulder one final squeeze for good measure before leaving the room. 

Once they’d sorted out their communication problems, Leo had insisted that he was fine and shut the door in Takumi’s face. Takumi should take him at his word-- after all, it’s not like they’re  _ close _ … but  _ still.  _ Ryoma shoved enough Stranger Danger VHS tapes down his throat as a kid that Takumi can’t help but be skeptical. 

Still, it’s not like he can  _ do  _ anything. Even if he called the cops, what would he tell them? His classmate crossdresses on the side? As good as it would feel to get back at Leo, his job isn’t exactly illegal. What, then? Some guy cornered him in an alley? Who would believe a 17-year old star-athlete claiming he’d been assaulted? He’d never be able to live it down at school-- and what would Sakura think, if even her own big brother can’t protect himself? She’d never leave her room again.

Ah. Of course. Takumi knows what he must do.

\---

“One Lovebird Special _for one_?” Leo scratches the order into his notepad, raising his voice on the last two words so the whole diner can hear. Takumi clenches his hands into fists to prevent him from drumming his fingers on the table. Leo peeks over the top of the pad, eyes calculating. “Anything else,  _ Master _ ?”

Takumi forces a smile and locks eyes with Leo. “No, that will be all,” he says, managing to force out a “Thanks.”

Leo smiles back. “Of course. Anything for my favorite customer.”

Just as Leo turns to go, however, Takumi gets an idea.

“Wait,” he says, lifting his menu. “Actually, I forgot my glasses. Can you read what this says for me?”

Leo curls his lip, but masks it with a smile and bends over the menu. “Ah, of course,” he says, then mutters, “The ‘I Wuv You’ cherry cheesecake.” His voice returns to its normal volume. “Will you be ordering some?”

Takumi frowns. “I’m sorry, I couldn’t quite hear that. What was it called?”

Leo shoots him a glare, then in an expressionless voice repeats, louder this time, “The ‘I Wuv You’ cherry cheesecake. Master.”

Takumi sets the menu gently on the table. “Alright, thank you,  _ Maximilian _ !” Leo doesn’t respond. “I think I’ll save that one for next time, though.”

Leo swipes the menu off the table with nimble fingers. “Ah, that’s too bad. I’m sure your mouth is big enough to fit both,” he says with a pout. Before Takumi can respond, Leo’s already striding away, his feathered skirt swooping behind him. The  _ click, click  _ of his heels haunt Takumi’s dreams for weeks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for your lovely comments on chapter 1!! I'm sorry about the long wait, and hope to update more regularly now that I have more free time on my hands. Feel free to let me know what you think of the story so far in the comments! I couldn't write without you, so, again, thank you.


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